Joel Johnson

Felt Playstation is really an iPhone case

An adorable felt PlayStation is really a case for your iPhone, crafted and sold by etsy seller rabbitrampage for just $20. (It's sold out now, but I bet they'll make you another one.)

The PS1 controller keychain is sold separately, but is probably essential. [via]

Xeni Jardin

Puzzle Master Wei-Hwa Huang's Blog Account of "Day in the Clouds"

"Day in the Clouds," The Virgin America + Google in-flight internet gaming competition we published a BB Video piece about today, netted yet another honor for multiple world puzzle championship Winner Wei-Hwa Huang. He's shown above, on our flight, using one of the tools of his win: a notebook. Not the notebook computer, a notebook.

He has an extensive blog post about his experience at the event here, which includes the impossibly awesome phrase "Parallel slave processor friends," used to describe his seat-mates, off whom he bounced thoughts as he sorted out answers.

My favorite part of his post? The lyrics he wrote as an answer for one of the puzzles. You should read the whole entry, because it's rare to read such a subjective, intimate account of how genius prepares for a competition in his field. But, I have to just blog the song he wrote, here:

Enjoy the world
with the day in the cloud
Never be bored
and say this aloud:

Everything is connected
when you live in the clouds
Every line is expected
when you live in the clouds

Everyone can do it
no matter your status
have fun anywhere
while flying through a stratus!

Everything is awesome
when you live in the clouds
Everything and then some
can be found in the clouds

Don't worry so
about problems in flight,
Because you know
Everything's going to be all right!

Day in the Cloud -- Virgin America Flight 921 (Onigame livejournal; image via Virgin America)

Xeni Jardin

(BB Video) Mile-High Gaming with Virgin + Google

(Download / YouTube)

In today's Boing Boing Video episode: our mini-documentary of "Day in the Cloud," a mile-high frag-a-thon aboard two dueling Virgin America planes both eqipped with in-flight WiFi.

During the one-hour flights, bloggers and game dorks played games that required internet connections, to compete for netbooks and pure ultimate leetness over their foes.

Competing on the plane from Los Angeles to San Francisco (named "YouTube Air"): me (Xeni), Rob Beschizza from Boing Boing Gadgets, legendary internet hilarity farmer Ze Frank, web personality Shira Lazar, and Wei-Hwa Huang, former Googler and world puzzle champion.

On the plane from San Francisco to Los Angeles (named "Superfly"): Kid Beyond, singer, beatboxer, and game nerd.

Lessons learned: Google makes it easier to cheat. Absinthe makes it harder to win. WiFi makes flying less boring. Kid Beyond and Ze Frank are very funny. Wei-Hwa Huang is the guy you want on your team in a puzzle competition. And finally, Rob and I should stick to blogging/vlogging, and forget about competitive puzzle-solving.

READ THE REST

Xeni Jardin

BB Video: Day in the Cloud - Google + Virgin America + Boing Boing + netbooks + mile-high networked fragging

(Download MP4 / YouTube)

Google Apps and Virgin America are teaming up for a day of cloud computing in the clouds: "Day in the Cloud," Wednesday, June 24.

Boing Boing will be on board -- me (Xeni), Rob Beschizza from Boing Boing Gadgets, and our friend Jane McGonigal, of Avantgame and Institute for the Future.

In this Boing Boing Video episode, I speak with Porter Gale of Virgin America, and Jen Mazzon, a "digital mom" from Google, about the in-flight game smackdown planned (one plane competes against the other to win a litter of brand-new netbooks), and about how always-connected data experience could change our lives.

Folks at home are also invited to play:

All you'll need is a net connection, a Google Account, and the warm, comforting glow of your computer screen. Become one of the top scorers and we'll set you up with your own personal "Year in the Cloud," complete with a brand-new HP netbook and 1 terabyte of Google Account storage for your photos and mail--all of which will come in handy when you fly free for a year on Virgin America with complimentary WiFi.

Virgin produced a short, funny promotional video for Day in the Cloud which is also worth a watch, below.

Sponsor shout-out

Rob Beschizza

Atari Cart Clocks

Can't Afford Em Crafts describes itself as "two people with a passion for finding clever ways to reduce waste creatively." A part of me finds this Atari abuse horrifying, but let's face it: most of their arcade conversions sucked.

Product Page [CantAffordEmCrafts Geeky Gadgets via CrunchGear]

Rob Beschizza

Needlepoint Space Invader fridge magnets

Rob Beschizza

Damnation station

"Damnation" Timberclad PS3 [Brass Goggles]

Rob Beschizza

"This listing has ended without a bid"

Rob Beschizza

Wii Bowling Ball

Bowling Ball for Wii [CTADigital via Oh Gizmo]

Rob Beschizza

Monster Remote Control

From Monster Cables comes the MCC AV50 Home Theater Controller, a $50 universal remote. [PC Mag]

Wouldn't that 1970s look be great for one of those play-any-ROM retro handheld game consoles?

Joel Johnson

What sort of things are possible if Project Natal works as promised?

Jason Cross:

The possibilities there are huge. They could certainly do object recognition - a game could not only model and mimic you, but could know when you pick up a cup or soda can. At a most basic level, in social networking environments you could have an avatar truly do what you're doing including munching on chips exactly as you do or taking a sip of beer or whatever. At a more advanced level, you could build object recognition into games - literally take a sip of water or whatever you have around (or mime it with an empty cup) to drink a health potion. With that kind of notion as a starting point, imagine what they could do with recognizing other objects. Imagine the real-world and marketing implications of recognizing specific products. Get a bigger energy boost from drinking a Mountain Dew!

Joel Johnson

Logitech Flight System G940

Proper flight sticks are few and far between these days, with an active market—or at least sort of active—for even used models. With flight simulators no longer a major market for videogames, there just isn't as much of a need.

Or is there? Logitech is giving it another go, with a full $300 "Flight System G940" that will launch this fall, completely with a pedals and a dual-split throttle. Expensive for a controller, perhaps, but relatively cheap for a full kit—including force feedback.

Joel Johnson

Video: Microsoft Project Natal for Xbox 360

I don't care how well the games work—I'll buy this for the media player controls alone.

The face recognition is cool, but who leaves their Xbox on all the time? It sounds like an asthmatic dump truck. Matter of fact, the horrible racket the Xbox 360 makes when it's on is the what makes it feel less like a real set-top box solution and more like a slapdash hack.

Project Natal dev kits are just hitting the offices of developers this week, so don't expect to actually be using this until sometime well into next year.

Rob Beschizza

PSP Go Details

Sony's PSP Go cuts the original's obsolete UMD optical drive and compacts the design into a pocketable gadget that resembles the Mylo (And one other.)

According to the leaked details, it'll have a 3.8" display, 16GB of flash storage, a Memory Stick slot, and Bluetooth. It'll be "43 percent lighter" than the current PSP, support handset tethering, and integrate well with Sony's PlayStation 3 and the PlayStation Network. New Gran Turismo, Little Big Planet and Metal Gear Solid titles will launch it.

Engadget rounds up the news on the clearly-improved refit. A gallery of press shots, published at Eurogamer, follows.

READ THE REST

Joel Johnson

Electro-Harmonix Overdrive pedal for Rock Band 2

Xeni Jardin

BB Video: "Dance Dance Revolution. With Flamethrowers. Pointed At You."

(Download / YouTube)

In today's episode of Boing Boing Video, we experience the funky flaming glory that is DANCE DANCE IMMOLATION, a pyro-parody of the popular arcade game in which one jumps around on touch-sensitive pads underfoot in rhythm with music. With DDI, you do this inside a flame-retardant suit. Miss a step, you get torched with a giant flamethrower.

Dance Dance Immolation combines video games, music, and propane. You play DDR. A good performance wins you acclaim from flamethrowers. A missed step gets you a face full of fire! Yes, the fire is real. Put on a fireproof suit and give it a try!

We hear they're next performing at the "Smukfest" art confab in Denmark.

CREW NOTE: About this episode's host, Aaron Muszalski (aka SFSlim): He's a Burning Man builder, visual effects artist and educator, and a wandering polyglamorous anarcho-Dada Buddhist biker punk. He's on Twitter. In this episode, you'll also see our delightful recurring guest host Charis Tobias, who is all of 18 years old if memory serves. And thanks to our SF-based shooter-producer Eddie Codel who did a fine job capturing the madness on this piece, yet again.

(Photo below by Kristen Ankiewicz, courtesty Interpretive Arson)

Sponsor shout-out

Joel Johnson

If the Zune HD isn't a portable Xbox I will slap Robbie Bach in the teeth

Microsoft hasn't put the Zune out to pasture yet, announcing yesterday the upcoming availability of what is known, for the moment, as the "Zune HD". As far as portable media players go, it's a contender: a bright OLED screen, HD video output to larger screens, and most importantly, a multitouch interface with a version of the Internet Explorer web browser that can handle Flash.

The company will also be moving the Zune video library service to Xbox, finally wedding the two services that are already under the same corporate banner.

I suspect that also means the Zune HD will be Microsoft's foray into mobile gaming, first with casual 2D games from the likes of PopCap and other vendors that already provide downloadable games through the Xbox, as well as original titles designed to work specifically on the mobile device.

It would make sense, at least. Ever since Microsoft first dipped its toe into the gaming waters, many have wondered when the company would also try its hand at portable gaming. While idle speculation (including my own) isn't worth the phosphors it's written on, seeing the two biggest home entertainment brands that Microsoft owns (besides what it is arguably its biggest entertainment brand, Windows) being knit together certainly allows for the possibility. And it would be so dumb for Microsoft to let another market slip through its fingers.

Even without a do-all device like a Zune Phone to go up against the iPhone platform, the Zune HD could be a useful adjunct to those already heavily plugged into the Xbox. While I would prefer to see the full force of Microsoft's hardware and software development unified behind a single mobile platform, the millions of Xbox gamers provide Microsoft with at least a few million potential customers—a rare few who have had a generally positive experience with a Microsoft platform.

⌦ Would Microsoft make a handheld gaming system without a phone?

Rob Beschizza

Rumor: Playstation 3 to finally get rid of stupid Spiderman font

Running this picture, ostensibly of a new, slim, small PS3, is getting folks legal warnings from the lawyers that represent whomever made them.

This means, in Internetlish, that it's a real leak. However, the client (presumably Sony, a partner or subsidiary) isn't identified by the lawyer, James Lan of Li Mo & Associated, so we're not quite home free.

Joel Johnson

I really hope ZuneX isn't real

I don't know if the "ZuneX" portable Xbox rumors are true, but I would remind you that the Zune trademark includes provision for "Toys and games, namely, hand-held units for playing electronic games" as well as "cellular telephone services".

That said, that is one ugly, monster device. I'd really hope a Zune Phone that was built around gaming would be more versatile and pocketable. I can't believe Microsoft would be so dumb as to recreate their precipitous second-place standing with Nintendo and Sony in another market.

Joel Johnson

Wal-Mart testing automated trade-in machines for used videogame

Wal-Mart is testing a used games trade-in machine at certain locations, a development that's welcome, if only to raise the price of trade-ins (or lower the price of used games) at Gamestop. Unfortunately, according to Neocrisis, the blog-slash-anime-suffix, the vending machines don't always know what game discs you're inserting to be scanned—and when they do, they don't provide instant credit, but instead a charge to your credit card in two or three days. [via Cheap Ass Gamer]

Update: Apparently Wal-Mart is dabbling with big box store-style electronics displays, too. [CrunchGear]

Lisa Katayama

Korean Rubik's cube is a tic-tac-toe board

A guy I know got this Rubik's cube in Korea. It's pretty much the same deal, except instead of being color-coded you have to try to line up completed tic-tac-toe boards on each side. [Link (Japanese)]

Joel Johnson

Would Microsoft make a handheld gaming system without a phone?

So if you can stand to read a couple thousand words of speculation in which the most solid information is from "well placed sources", César A. Berardini from Team Xbox is speculating that Microsoft will be releasing a handheld super-gizmo that will be capable of playing games, serving as a GPS device, sharing music, games, and video downloads with the Xbox, perhaps working as a phone, and maybe even using Wi-Max. It's hopeful, at best, but it's not at all implausible.

My question, though, would be why this wouldn't simply be the Zune Phone. (And it could be, since we're talking about wisps and fairies.) As the flashing ad for Need for Speed on the iPhone underneath César's story title reminds, Apple has done very well for itself by making a single do-all device. And if any group within Microsoft could do it, too, it'd be the Entertainment and Devices division.

Rob Beschizza

DJ Hero controller

There's something weird about all this, don't you think? The complexity gap between the gadget and its Hero controller has shrunk--even as it powers-up the brain-melting recursive virtuality of toy instruments controlling virtual representations of real instruments using a frenetic crypto-performance that it itself staggeringly hard to master.

How long until Guitar Hero Hero? How long until we have Game Hero, in which an on-screen character plays a game, and you have a game controller modeled on a game controller? And where Jean Baudrillard punches you in the dick when you lose.

DJ Hero controller makes an appearance [CrunchGear]

Rob Beschizza

PSP-3000 finally hacked

Team Typhoon finally conquered the new PSP, opening it to homebrew, customization and piracy.

This is a demo of the 5.03 firmware running the tiff exploit and booting into a HEN environment on a PSP 2003 (3000 Support also) on 5.03 Official Firmware. This proves that the code survives a reboot and the system software and MAC address can be changed. This is something that only can be done with a kernel exploit. A video launching homebrew will be posted later.

Credits: Homebrew Enabler - (Davee) Team Typhoon
5.03 Tiff Exploit - MaTiAz
Video - Granite
The Community - All your support. :D

You'll have to wait, though: packaging it up for public consumption is the next step.

Source [Slashdot]

Rob Beschizza

Energizer-branded Wiimote charger up for pre-order

This Energizer-branded inductive WiiMore charger lets you juice up the sticks without removing their sheaths. It's $50.

Wii Energizer 2x Induction Charge Station [Amazon]

Rob Beschizza

$10 Wii Soap

Nintendo Wiimote Wii remote replica soap [Digitalsoaps@etsy via Gizmodo via Gadget Venue]

Rob Beschizza

PXP looks like a PSP, emulates the classics

At $90, it's simply too expensive, but this PSP knockoff runs ROMS from lots of classic systems: NES, SNES, Gameboy 'n' Color, and the Megadrive/Genesis. As Gizmodo commenter Zaxxon Q Blaque points out, it appears to be a Dingoo in PSP clothing. [Chinagrabber via Technabob and Giz]

Rob Beschizza

Behold! GameGrip, the world's most absurd iPhone accessory

[Trinity via Lisa's Tokyomango and Oh Gizmo!]

Joel Johnson

Star Wars chess set replaces imagination with silver and gold

For over five hundred dollars, I really wish this Star Wars chess set were less ugly. Or maybe it's not even ugly that bothers me, but the lack of imagination. I know that pawns are all supposed to look the same, but there's an entire universe of odd aliens out there and they've got to use the same hunched pilot figure eight times?

Rob Beschizza

Lime green Nintendo DS lite bundle readied for sale in US

Finally.

New Lime Green DS Lite Gaming Bundle From Nintendo [GeekSugar]